Daniel_Buskariol_Assesment_1

Media Convergence:

Music Video Online

Digital convergence refers to mass communication outlets such as Internet, television, radio and print, merging and evolving together with industries, cultures and practices of use over time. Digital convergence enables the reaching of a wider audience than traditional analogue technology would have reached. For online music videos, digital convergence is becoming increasingly relevant in todays culture, as utilizing this evolving technology is crucial in enabling artists to distribute to a wider audience. The convergence of these mediums has provided cheap, effective ways of creating and distributing music videos online for both rich, well known artists and young, upcoming talent. The lack of money being put into these music videos has brought an end to music videos on television and has pushed the industry towards the delivery of music videos online.

YouTube Logo

One of the most obvious current digital trends YouTube, convergences audio/visual media and communication is a very significant way. Rather than music videos being limited only to televisions at specific times, they are now available online through many different devices. YouTube is “at the forefront of web video” (Hilderbrand, 2007) because it allows the free uploading, watching and distributing of online videos. These characteristics have meant that YouTube has had a huge impact on the music industry, as consumers no longer must purchase a CD to listen or watch music videos. Because of this phenomenon, the “Music Industry had to find new ways of gaining revenue” (Gualtieri, 2009). The launch of YouTube in 2005 instantly bought “tens of millions of visitors daily” (Hilderbrand, 2007), all of which were able to use it to freely view and post media like music videos and television clips. Fast-forward 7 years and YouTube now attracts “over 800 million unique users a month” (Anon., 2012), with “4 billion videos” (Anon., 2012), being viewed on a daily basis. This revolutionary phenomenon is a perfect means of communication for artists to share their music videos online with a very large audience.

The utilization of YouTube in today’s society is evident if we look at a few major artists: Swedish House Mafia, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. These artists all have official YouTube profiles that are dedicated to sharing their music online for free and each have millions of views on many of their music videos.  Many artists attempt to make a funny, quirky or interesting music video that goes viral. A perfect example of the effect YouTube has had in assisting the spread of a music video and the popularity of an artist is the song ‘Here it goes again’ by Ok Go, which currently has more than 12 million views on YouTube. The group’s 4 members all “turn in sync on a treacherous course of treadmills… as if it were an elaborate joke”(Hilderbrand, 2007). Artists, like OK Go share their music video hosted on YouTube by combining it with the power of social networking on platforms like FaceBook to assist spreading the video. The example of Facebook shows how the convergences of technology, in this case communication and the Internet, has aided this low-budget routine to be filmed by the artists themselves and shared for free on YouTube.

Music videos first started appearing on television in the mid 1970’s to the early 1980’s on shows like Countdown (Australia) and MTV (America). When MTV began, music videos were very money focused because they drove record sales. The main streams of income for record labels and artists were from advertisements such as product placement and from record sales.



As music videos on television became less popular, record labels income was reduced as the advertisements in them were being aired less. This is when MTV really “started pumping out reality shows”(Robinson, 2010). Once music videos began playing online on websites like YouTube, they became popular again as you could watch whatever you wanted at your own convenience, rather than watching a pre-determined playlist on television. An artist could spread their music video to the world instantly as stated by Jenkins (2006) that new artists are “tracked via the web that allows the public to register its preferences in hours rather than weeks”. This marked a big shift away from television and thus the ending of music videos on television. There was now a new force amongst record labels and artists to produce popular videos that appealed to a very wide audience.

Left: New MTV logo, Right: Old MTV logo

MTV began as a 24/7 music video television station, however by the late 1990’s to early 2000’s this idea was abandoned and MTV focused more and more on airing more reality television shows like Road Rules, and comedy shows such as Jackass. MTV have recently “dropped from its logo the words Music Television” (Robinson, 2010), which proves the shift away from music videos on television. The fact that YouTube can now offer what television could not, that is “new mechanisms for promotion and circulation of amateur media.” (Green and Burgess, 2009) proves why music videos on television are no longer popular; the lack of viewers’ means they cost too much money for the amount of revenue they generate. Since the introduction of YouTube even amateur artist can record, share and promote their music videos online, all for free using YouTube and social networking websites. 

The phenomenon of both digital media convergence and technological convergence has had a very significant impact on the music industry in relation to music videos. No longer do artists and record labels have the need to produce high priced music videos packed full of advertisements and distribute them on a medium that is limited in both viewers and geographical location. They now have YouTube, an online video sharing website which allows both well-known and amateur artists to create low-budget music videos and distribute them online for free. It gives artists who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to create music videos and advertise them the opportunity to do just that. Since the introduction of the Internet, audio/visual media has converged with this major communication channel, which has allowed a wider audience to be reached. MTV initially had a huge impact for artists because it was one of the first stations to broadcast music videos. Over time new technologies that have evolved and converged has meant the ending of music videos on televisions and has brought the new era of music videos online.

Reference List

*Hilderbrand, L. (2007) Where Cultural Memory and Copyright Converge. Web Video. pp.48 AND The Clip Canon pp.51.

Gualtieri, D. (2009) YouTube, Web 2.0 and the Music Industry. [online]. Available at: http://dgualtieri.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/youtube-web-2-0-and-the-music-industry/ [Accessed 20 March 2012].

Anon. (2012) Statistics. [online]. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics [Accessed 21 March 2012].

Robinson, I. (2010). Analyzing The End Of Music Television. [online]. Available at: http://www.craveonline.com/tv/articles/140550-analyzing-the-end-of-music-television [Accessed 20 March 2012].

*Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Introduction. pp. 9. New York University Press.

*Green, J and Burgess, J. (2009) YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Henry Jenkins, What Happened before YouTube?.

*  Unit Reader and Recommended Reading List